the roll. quorum call: quorum call: >> administrator, thank you for being hereatronaldreagannationalairport. as we look at the holidays fast approaching, thanksgiving next week, we're anticipating a busy travel season again, and the men and women of tsa are standing at the ready to provide the most effective security in the most effective way. as you know, that creates challenges and opportunities for the traveling public, quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. udall: mr. president, we're in a quorum call, is that correct? the presiding officer: the senator is correct. mr. udall: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. udall: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. udall: mr. president, i ask the chair lay before the senate a message from the house with respect to s. 743. the presiding officer: the clerk will re

. andofronaldreaganandtip o'neill reforming socialsecurity.ronaldreaganandtip oatmeal during the last comprehensive tax reform. bill clinton and republican congress with welfare reform and balanced in the budget. so we look forward to making this divided government productive for the american people and the several wellness we have a lot of challenges here at the end of the year. i'll be meeting with the president and the other leadership on friday to talk about the way forward and we look forward to being a part of the solution to the significant problems. it is my pleasure now to turn to our newly elected with come as senator cornyn of texas. >> well, things, natch. it's an honor to be elected by my colleagues to serve as the whip, the assistant leader on the republican side. as a drama, fat, we have a lot of very difficult work to do, but we are committed to working with our colleagues across the aisle to solving the nation's urgent problems. we know what those are in a lame duck coming out this if this are going forward. there is no mystery about that commanders say mr. to solutio

countries have transformed, reform, lower the rates. we haven't touched itsinceronaldreaganin1986. bill clinton did raise it at one point but we haven't done anything to touch the rate and reform -- tecum from 16.5% to 15% which most of you are aware of because you do business there, and this capital investment is going to follow countries that have a more competitive environment in taxes is one of them's a we have to reform the tax code and when you do that you will get more revenue. it's guaranteed. again, as i was talking at earlier there are opportunities here for us as a country and if you look at the congressional budget analysts this and go to the tax committee analysis what tax reform could mean in the economic growth and all of them will lead to more growth with this corporate tax reform. estimate of the president says what he did last friday, this was fought over in the campaign and we fought over rising tax rates. jay carney said they would veto any bill that extends the current tax rate so if he insists that tax rates go out for those making over to under $50,000 will would

examples of presidents who solved big problems by finding common ground with the otherside.ronaldreagandidit with a democratic-led house after a far more resounding second-term victory than president obama's, as did bill clinton, with a republican-controlled house and a republican-controlled senate after a more resounding second-term victory than president obama. both examples -- both of them -- illustrate the rare opportunity that divided government presents. president obama can follow suit or he can take the extremist view that both reagan and clinton rejected, by thumbing his nose at the other side and insisting that if republicans aren't willing to do things his way, he won't do anything at all. now, if the president's serious, he'll follow the leads of president reagan and clinton. if he's really serious, he'll put the campaign rhetoric aside, propose a realistic solution that can pass a republican-controlled house and a divided senate, and work to get it done. and if the president acts in this spirit, i have no doubt he'll have the support of his own party and a willing partner

and do something good, something really good for thecountry.ronaldreaganunderstoodthis. bill clinton understood this. and president obama seemed to understand it too in december of 2010. so i'll say it again. the only way we succeed is if the president steps up and leaders. it starts by showing that he's serious about success. and let's be clear, an opening bid of $1.6 trillion in new taxes just isn't serious. it's more than simpson-bowles or any other bipartisan commission has called for. it's been unanimously rejected in the house and senate. it's twice as much as the white house seemed ready to agree to during last summer's debt ceiling talks. and looked at in the context of the spending cuts yet to be enacted from the president's other proposals, it amounts to about 20 cents in cuts for every new dollar in tax hikes. in other words, no cuts at all. it's a joke. a joke. look, people i talk to across kentucky, they don't want any more political fights. th*e'd like to -- they'd like to see us get somewhere. they want the two parties to work together to find a solution to our fiscal

--ronaldreaganaspresident -- worked together to make our tax code more logical, more equitable, and more efficient. ten years later, divided government produced a sweeping overhaul of our welfare system, under then-president bill clinton. conservative republicans joined with a democratic president to help millions of lower-income people break free of the cycle of dependency and despair. of course, we know we've had divided government. as i said earlier, we really had a status quo election in that sense. we've had divided government since january 2011 when republicans regained the majority in the house of representatives. the result over the last two years, sadly, it has produced legislative stalemates and bitter recriminations. why should anybody expect that things will be different going forward? i think, mr. president, what's different now from then is that republicans and democrats alike recognize we are at a crossroads, that our current fiscal path is unsustainable, and that we're either going to send the economy back into a recession -- unless we deal with the fiscal cliff and the s